James Spader, a yoga teacher? Well, he gave it his best shot. When the “Blacklist” actor was just a young buck trying to make it in the big city he took a job as a hack yoga instructor to make some extra dough. But he pretty much knew absolutely nothing about yoga.
As he told Seth Meyers Monday on “Late Night,” Spader’s yoga teaching gig wasn’t exactly planned. In fact, he just sort of fell into it, thanks to his sister who got him the job at a health club back in the 70s. They needed a yoga teacher, so he said okie doke, and did what any quick study would do: pick a yoga pamphlet from the grocery store and wing it.
“The only thing I gleaned from the pamphlet was that you get them to hold that position and then breathe, and then turn the temperature up,” Spader told Meyers, which could mayyybe indicate it was some Bikram leaflet (?)
“My classes were…I dimmed the lights, and I would sort of lay down in the front, and I would get people…I would talk them, I didn’t even really show them, I would talk them into some sort of odd contortion that I interpreted as being yogic or yogi.”
He then proceeded to nod off several times while the class wondered what the heck was up.
Don’t worry, James Spader, this is actually how a lot of yoga teachers start out. Some get better, some don’t, some become jazzercise instructors, and some continue on to be award-winning actors. We’re glad you’re the latter.
Fun fact: Spader met his first wife, decorator Victoria Kheel, while working in a yoga studio after he moved to New York City in the 1980s. They married in 1987 and have two sons, Elijah and Sebastian. [Via Wikipedia]
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Earlier…
- Here’s a Rare Photo of Joan Rivers Practicing Yoga
- A Day In the Life: Edie Falco’s Meditation Routine
- Jared Leto Loves Yoga (and Maybe Zebra Yoga Pants)
Ashley Judd, An Inspiring YogaDork We Love, Says Yoga Is Her ‘Rock’
What makes that any different than any other Yoga Alliance teacher? At least he is honest about intentionally scamming people.